Be sure to include your name, daytime phone number, address, name and phone number of legal next-of-kin, method of payment, and the name of the funeral home/crematory to contact for verification of death.

SC business notebook: Allendale County Bank fails

Regulators have closed a small lender in South Carolina, marking the sixth U.S. bank failure of 2014 after 24 closures last year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday that it has taken Allendale County Bank, based in Fairfax. The lender, which operated five branches, had about $54.5 million in assets and $51 million in deposits as of Dec. 31. Palmetto State Bank, based in Hampton, agreed to assume Allendale’s deposits and to buy essentially all of the failed lender’s assets. Allendale County Bank’s failure is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $17.1 million. U.S. bank failures have been declining since they peaked in 2010 in the wake of the financial crisis and the Great Recession. Only three banks went under in 2007. That jumped to 25 in 2008, after the financial meltdown, and ballooned to 140 in 2009. In 2010, regulators seized 157 banks, the most in any year since the savings and loan crisis two decades ago.

Coast

Delay urged on shopping center vote

Bluffton officials have urged Beaufort County Council to delay a vote on plans to build a large shopping center at the corner of U.S. 278 and S.C. 46, saying the project could set precedents that threaten area waterways. The county is considering a proposal by Jaz Development LLC to put two large retailers on the densely wooded, 66-acre site, which is outside of town limits. The land was the former site of a printing company, and the soil there is contaminated. The center would be called Bluffton Gateway. In a letter to County Council chairman Paul Sommerville, Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka said approving the project could have “unintended impacts for the sensitive waterways in the greater Bluffton region.” Despite those concerns, the town has recently gauged developer interest in being annexed into Bluffton, according to two emails given to county administrator Gary Kubic by a Jaz attorney on Thursday. Town staff said Thursday that is standard practice and does not contradict its position on stormwater pollution.

Upstate

Medical supplies distributor to bring Rock Hill 140 jobs

A medical supplies distributor will invest $27.5 million to open a new distribution facility in York County. McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc. will bring more than 140 jobs when it opens in about a year. The 300,000-square-foot building in Riverwalk Business Park in Rock Hill will distribute medical and surgical supplies to physician offices, surgery centers, long-term care facilities and home care businesses in a regional service area that includes the Carolinas. The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job development credits and a $200,000 set aside grant for building construction related to the project.

Nation & World

Amazon, Ford drag down market

The stock market fell sharply Friday, dragged down by disappointing quarterly results from Amazon and Ford. Escalating tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine also weighed on the market. Worried investors sold their risky assets and moved into the traditional havens, such as bonds and gold. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 15.21 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,863.40. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 140.19 points, or 0.9 percent, to 16,361.46 and the Nasdaq composite lost 72.78 points, or 1.8 percent, to 4,075.56.

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